India’s Tata Confirms Interest In Acquiring Jaguar & Land Rover From Ford

Just a few days before Jaguar launches the XF, probably the most important model in the past decade or so for the British carmaker, and India’s Tata Group chairman confirmed his company’s interest in buying Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover brands. "We certainly have an interest in that," Chairman Ratan Tata told in an interview he gave to the CNN-IBN TV channel. -Continued after the jump

Ford has been looking to get rid of the Jaguar and Land Rover firms after selling Aston Martin previously this year as part of the Group’s major corporate restructuring plan - Ford lost $12.6 billion in 2006 if you’re still wondering why. Tata Group on the other hand, is a huge company whose interests range from automobiles to steel –they paid $12 billion to acquire Britain-based Corus Steel earlier this year. So apparently, money isn’t the object when it comes to Tata that wants to expand globally in every aspect.

Via: Detnews

World's First Production Air-Powered Car, Fill It Up With 2$ Of Air!

With gas hitting record prices all over the world any wacko idea is welcome, but a car running on air? Yes and despite what you may think, the folks at MDI aren’t full of hot air. Developed by ex-F1 engineer, Guy Nègre for MDI a small, family-controlled company located at Carros, near Nice (Southern France), the Air Car uses compressed air to push its engine’s pistons emitting… 0 to sub-zero Celsius (30 F and under) air!

All it takes is €1.5 -$2.0 and around 2 to 3 minutes at a gas station to fill the car’s carbon-fibre tanks with 90 cubic meters of air compressed to 300 bars. Alternatively, you can plug the car into an electrical grid and use the built-in compressor to refill the tanks which takes approximately 4 hours. Of course, electricity=emissions, but hey, no one’s perfect. According to MDI, the Air Car can go up to 110km/h - 68 mph and has a range of 200-300km or 125-190 miles. MDI has developed four versions of the Air Car: Family, Van, Taxi & Pick-Up.

While there are no plans to import the Air Car to the US, India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, signed an agreement with MDI in February to build the Air Car. Tata expects some 6.000 units to hit Indian streets in August of 2008. Apart from India, MDI has also signed deals to bring the Air Car to a dozen or so countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa. We’re not endorsing the Air Car as a true alternative to petrol cars –who knows how many faults it may have, but in our opinion, the only viable way to drastically improve consumption and emissions, will be an array of solutions: diesels, hybrids (petrol/electric & diesel/electric), bio-fuels, air cars etc. All together, they may very well do the trick until some wacko scientist finds a way to power our vehicles with a super clean and efficient energy that’ll last for ever and ever. Sweet dreams… -Click “Read More…” below for a high-res image gallery and a Video

Via: Le blog auto , Source: MDI

TechArt “pimps up” Porsche’s new baby coupe: the 385 Hp Cayman S based GTsport

Now tell me, isn’t this just plain sexy? A big bravo to TechArt who did quite a good job on the Cayman body which looks so much sexier than the original, especially if you look at it from ¾ behind.

But, appearance isn’t the only thing that changed on the Cayman’s alter ego as the GTsport is as bad as it looks. At the heart of this mid-engine sports car lies the increase in displacement from standard 3,387 cm³ to 3,824 cm³. The increase is facilitated by a bore enlarged to 99 millimeters with the corresponding larger special pistons, and by the installation of a special crankshaft.

The engine conversion further includes sports camshafts. A modified intake manifold with special air filter system and an aluminum header provide ample combustion air. The interaction of all these components including the fully stainless-steel high-performance exhaust system with high-performance manifold is orchestrated by new mapping for the engine electronics.

So what do all these conversion sum up too? Maximum power is now 385 hp / 283 kW while peak torque is 407 Nm . According to TechART, the GTsport sprints form 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.9 seconds while it’s top speed is 285 km/h.

Aerodynamics: The TechArt GTsport front apron is designed to replace the production bumper. With its large air inlets and four auxiliary headlights it lends the two-seater a more dynamic appearance while reducing lift on the front axle at high speeds. The extendable carbon air splitter can further minimize aerodynamic lift.

The TechArt rocker panels were modeled to calm the airstream between front and rear wheel houses. They also give the two-seater a longer, sleeker appearance. Carbon mirror moldings round out the racing look of the TechArt GTsport.

To optimize downforce on the rear axle and for even more striking looks TechArt Automobildesign further equips the GTsport with a rear wing with extendable carbon gurney flap. The rear apron is refined by a carbon diffuser.

Wheels: The especially light-weight one-piece TechArt Formula five-spoke wheels are mounted on the front axle in size 8.5Jx20 with ContiSportContact 3 tires in size 235/30 ZR 20. The rear axle features wheels in size 11Jx20 with size 305/25 ZR 20 tires.

Suspension: Specially calibrated to these wheels and tires is the TechArt VarioPlus coil-over suspension for all vehicles that are factory-equipped with the electronically adjustable PASM damper system. This suspension not only allows adjustable ride-height lowering by up to 25 millimeters, but also manual selection of damper settings “Normal” and “Sport” at the push of a button in the cockpit. The dampers are not limited by the manually selected setting: Sporty driving automatically firms up the dampers in both suspension modes. The result is an optimal symbiosis of excellent ride comfort during normal driving and agile direct response during fast cornering.

Price: The GTsport will be built in small-series production with prices starting in Europe forma 100,000 euros.

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